Montenegro claims gold medal - Malta day 8

The final day of the men's European Junior Championships in Malta featured the top eight sides of the tournament determine their ranking. Spain convincingly beat Turkey 13-5 to claim 7th place, followed by Croatia who held off Russia 6-12. Italy, after the close loss to Montenegro in the semifinals finished the tournament on a positive note by clinching the third place and bronze medal. In a tense battle Hungary was defeated 10-9, the exact same score as the matchup of the two sides on day 1 of the championships. Montenegro wrote history in the gold medal final that followed. By topping neighbours Serbia 7-5 the Montenegrins won the U17 men's European Junior Championships for the first time in team history. After the Serbs took a 2-0 lead Montenegro responded well by scoring three straight goals to finish the first quarter leading 3-2. In a better second period the Montenegrins extended their lead and managed to keep the two-goal advantage alive in the second half although Serbia came back to 5-6 before Djuricic shot home the winner with 5.22 left in the game. Today's fixtures and results are:

Greece takes ninth place - Malta day 7

WaterpoloWorld

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Saturday 14 September 2013, 20:39

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Tim Hartog

The first of two days of ranking matches at the men's European Junior Championships in Malta saw Greece concluding day 7 of action by claiming the ninth place beating Romania 9-7. But the opening match in the national swimming pool on Saturday brought the home crowd to their feet. Hosts Malta went to overtime in the game do determine what team would finish the tournament in last place. The Maltese squad, who had seen Belarus coming back from a 6-10 deficit after three quarters, responded well in the first period of extra time by scoring three unanswered goals to decide the outcome in their favour and finish 15th while Belrarus closed out the tournament last. Georgia won the matchup for 13th place 12-8 over Ukraine while Germany secured an 11th place finish holding off France 11-8. The Greek claimed the top spot available on Saturday thanks to a nice 0-2 finish against Romania as both sides were tied 7-7 with eight minutes to go in regulation. On Sunday the top eight spots will be determined. Today's fixtures and results are as follows:

MARCO PAGANUZZI (allenatore): “Guardando le partite dei
Mondiali ho avuto la conferma del fatto che tra gli arbitri non c’è omogeneità
di valutazione circa alcune situazioni di gioco, e in particolare il “due metri”
e il tiro diretto da oltre cinque metri. Ciò dipende, a mio avviso, dal fatto
che i direttori di gara non applicano il regolamento, lo interpretano. Occorre,
dunque, che sia fatta chiarezza in merito, altrimenti determinati falli
continueranno ad essere valutati diversamente a seconda degli arbitri presenti a
bordovasca”.
(eng) – “Looking at the World Cup matches I had the confirmation
that there is no uniformity among the referees about some game situations, and
in particular the “two meters” and the direct shot for more than five meters.
This depends, in my opinion, by the fact that the referees do not apply the
regulation, but interpret it. It is therefore necessary that there is clarity
about it, otherwise certain fouls will continue to be differently valued
according to the referees present at the pool”

STEFANO POSTERIVO (allenatore): “Sono stato a Barcelona
nelle ultime giornate del torneo e dal vivo ho avuto conferma dell’impressione
che avevo avuto guardando in televisione le precedenti partite: il livello delle
direzioni arbitrali è stato molto insufficiente. Ciò, a mio avviso, è stato
determinato anche dal fatto che ai Mondiali hanno diretto anche fischietti non
di primissima fascia, molti dei quali provenienti da Paesi nei quali la
pallanuoto non è particolarmente diffusa. Il rimedio, quindi, è elevare il
livello generale degli arbitraggi e lo si può fare soltanto designando per le
grandi manifestazioni internazionali due arbitri (e non più uno soltanto)
provenienti da Nazioni come l’Italia in cui la pallanuoto si gioca ad un certo
livello”.
(eng) – “I was in Barcelona in the last matches of the tournament
and I received confirmation of the impression that I had been watching on
television the previous games: the level of refereeing was very poor. This, in
my opinion, was determined by the fact that in the World Championships has also
directed referres not of the highest level, many of whom come from countries
where water polo is not particularly widespread. The remedy, therefore, is to
raise the general level of refereeing and you can do it only by designating for
major international events two referees (rather than only one) from countries
such as Italy where water polo is played at a certain level “.

GIANLUCA LEO (giornalista): “Onestamente non so come può
essere possibile omologare gli arbitraggi a livello internazionale, così come in
campo nazionale. Parliamo di questa situazione da anni ed anni ma alla fine
cambia poco ed il prossimo anno, al termine degli europei, ci ritroveremo ancora
qui a chiederci come possa essere possibile omologare le direzioni di gara.
Personalmente, però, credo che tra i tanti errori visti a Barcellona quello più
importante da risolvere è la cosiddetta compensazione. Non necessariamente il
direttore di gara deve continuare a sbagliare, assegnando un’espulsione o un
rigore inesistente o magari un fallo in attacco, per bilanciare un errore di
valutazione fatto in precedenza. Bisogna però che anche giocatori ed allenatori
facciano la propria parte: come un’atleta sbaglia una superiorità numerica,
anche l’arbitro può sbagliare”.
(eng) – “I honestly do not know how it can be
possible to make homogeneous the refereeing at the international level, as well
as in the national field. We talk about this situation for years and years but
in the end it changes little and the next year, at the end of the European
Championshipss, we will meet again here wondering how it could be possible to
make homogeneous the refereeing. Personally, however, I believe that among the
many errors seen in Barcelona the most important one to be solved is the
so-called compensation. Not necessarily the referee must continue to make
mistakes, assigning an expulsion or a non-existent penalty or maybe an offensive
foul, to balance an error of judgment made earlier. However, players and coaches
have to make their part: as an athlete can wrong a numerical superiority, the
referee can make mistakes.

for
referees “) I think you have to eliminate the background noise, which makes all
the referees very vulnerable: they referee for an entire year with a meter, then
with international club they have to take another one. As if that were not
enough use the same meter during the competitions for nations to the final match
and there … zac, a nice technical committee that decides how they should
arbitrate 3 or 4 hours later. It is not possible for even the most gifted of the
referees, refereeing ath his best digesting a new meter and apply it in a few
hours without ever having experienced long before. I still maintain that the
referees are more often the victims, not perpetrators. ”

FABRIZIO NAPOLI (giornalista): “E’ un problema molto
difficile da risolvere. Può aiutare sicuramente un continuo confronto tra le
parti, ovvero tra arbitri, allenatori e giocatori, ma non si riesce a farlo in
Italia, figuriamoci a livello internazionale”.
(eng) – “It’s a very difficult
problem to solve. It can definitely help a continuous dialogue between the
parties, or between referees, coaches and players, but you can not do it in
Italy, let alone on an international level”.

2013 Junior Men’s World Championships: Summary

Firstly, my apologies for the interruption in the coverage of this event due to technical problems that emerged unexpectedly at the time.

Italian war cry

Italy was clearly the strongest team and got the championships title on merit. They won all their matches except for the draw with the hosts, Hungary, in the preliminary rounds. The skills of Head-coach, Ferdinando Pesci’s, charges were excellent. Like at the youth world championships eight months ago – where the Italians also came first – in Szombathely they yet again demonstrated physically strong and ingenious water polo. The team had well-coordinated and sophisticated attacking and defensive patterns that could not be executed without the fine individual techniques of all its players but in particular Francesco di Fulvio, Andrea Fondelli, Alessandro Velotto and Tommaso Busilacchi.

Italy celebrates

Some of the Italian players took part in the recent youth WC as well. These results and, importantly, quality of performance confirmed yet again that organization of both junior development and senior systems in Italy is one of the best, if not the best in the world.

As usual, the teams of Croatia and Serbia were among the main contenders taking Silver and Bronze respectively. These teams’ final placings could have been different had the Serbian team not faced the Italians in the semi-final which they lost 4:5 in a tight contest. With due respect to the Croatians, to me, the Serbian team was the second best team of the tournament after the Italians.

Vladimir Vujasinovic

The Serbian Head-coach, Vladimir Vujasinovic, was one of the best players in the world in the not too distant past. Under his guidance the team was well-organized and disciplined. Dusan Mandic, who is a member of the Serbian senior national team, Dimitrije Obradovic and Gavril Subotic, each demonstrated the level of shooting skills that could be subject of envy by members of any senior national team. I was told that Obradovic and Subotic were born in 1995. If so, they would be eligible for the WC to be held 2015.

Serbia celebrates

Croatian Head-coach and former national team’s player, Vjekoslav Kobescak, has done an excellent job mobilizing his crew and achieving an excellent result. Even though Croatia had a seemingly easier path to the top of the ladder due to the tournaments’ draw, this does not diminish their result. In crucial matches they displayed real quality water polo including by several players who are eligible for the next junior WC. On the way to a decisive semi-final – in which they convincingly beat Hungary 13:10 – Croatia dominated in the match with Australia 11:5.

Croatia in action

The fourth place by Hungary might look like a poor result for the nation with great water polo history and traditions. However, Head-coach, Gyorgy Horkai, his assistants and players have made enormous progress within the last 2-3 years to emerge at this championships as highly competitive with other leading sides. In a quarter-final match for the top four position Hungary outplayed a strong Spanish team and were the only team who did not lose to Italy.

Match Hungary V Spain about to start

The US team improved its form and performance with every match of the tournament. Having lost their opening encounter with Spain 6:8, the Americans beat the same team, 9:7 in the last game to achieve 5th place – not a bad result given the strength of the top four teams. But before reaching this stage, the North-Americans impressed with their fighting spirit in must-win tough encounters with the Slovakian, Russian and Australian teams. In their ranks they had one of the best players at this tournament, Alexander Bowen, who must be credited for his team’s positive results in Szombathely.

The Spanish team won the preliminary group stage by demonstrating a smart and skilful brand of water polo. Perhaps, the main factor that prevented them from achieving a better result was lack of depth on the bench. Their overall very competent performance lacked sharpness when the main playmakers, Alberto Munarriz, Alberto Barroso and Marco Larumbe had to be replaced.

Spain enters wáter

Brazil was one of the revelations at this WC. In the past, this team would play very enthusiastic and passionate but not really competent water polo. That is how many people perceived them in Szombathely – to their peril as it turned out. Most of their opponents – including the top outfits – found themselves in very uncomfortable situations and had to apply all their resources to achieve a desired result – some belatedly. In the match for the seventh position Brazil beat Australia – an outcome that has not happened for a long time.

Australia had mixed results at this tournament. The team must be credited with their win in an important match with the Russians for the right to make top eight. However, in other do or die games the Ozzies did not manage to play consistently throughout entire matches. For example, Australia started very well against Serbia leading 3:0 in the middle of the second quarter only to lose 5:12 in the end. A somewhat similar scenario was in a match of principal importance with the United States in which Australia led after half-time only to lose the next two periods and the match 11:13. Inadequate fitness and conditioning levels seemed to be among the reasons for that fluctuation in Australia’s performance. On a positive note, Gabriel Addley became a revelation of this world championships often keeping his team in the game saving many difficult shots as well as inspiring others with his fighting spirit and encouraging positive demeanor.

Australia V Serbia

Like its National senior team, the juniors of Japan displayed a very original and interesting brand of water polo. And it was not only entertaining, it was also efficient. Most of their opponents had to apply maximum effort to achieve their desired result. In the last match Japan beat Russia whose players were twice as big in size but could not adjust to their highly mobile opponents. It will be interesting to see how Japan will look after the new rules come into force in September this year as its style of play seems to better reflect the vision of water polo that these amendments will hopefully bring.

Japan’s bench

The real disappointment of this tournament was the Russian team. In addition to lackluster performances in the crucial games against Spain, the US and Australia, the Russians lost to Japan on the last day after leading 7:1 in the middle of the match. It is not only the technique-tactical mistakes which characterized the Russian team’s performance that was upsetting. Whilst having good levels of general strength and fitness, the lack of fighting spirit and playing discipline – the qualities that used to be the strength of any Russian team – turned out to be the core reasons for such hapless performances.

With rather limited resources the team from Uzbekistan achieved 12th placing leaving behind their archrivals, Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan’s Kirill Rustamov became the tournament’s top goal-scorer.

The 17th FINA World Men’s Junior Championships was held in the oldest Hungarian city Szombathely.The popularity of water polo in this country was on display once again with more than 2000 spectators gathering for every match of the home team. These spectators were not just watching but knew all the subtleties of the game and were reacting to displays of skills and/or referees’ decisions with competence thus creating great atmosphere.

06 agosto 2013

Barcelona (ESP), August 2, 2013 - The first meeting of the FINA newly appointed Bureau for the period 2013-2017 took place in Barcelona (ESP), and was highlighted by the following decisions:

- Nomination under FINA Constitution Rule C 17.1.8 of new Bureau Member Jesus Mena, from Mexico.

FINA Constitution Rule C.17.1.8 states: “The FINA Bureau shall have the right to co-opt a representative from the Member where the next Olympic Games and/or World Championships will be held. This representative shall be a member of the FINA Bureau without vote. This rule shall not apply if such a Member has already a representative in the FINA Bureau”.

The FINA World Championships in 2017 will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico.

- Nomination of the FINA Committees for the period 2013-2017. The complete list can be found here.

- Approval of the FINA Technical Swimming Committee recommendation to make mandatory the use of 10 lanes for preliminaries at the FINA World Championships and FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

- Approval of dates for the 2014 FINA World Aquatics Convention (November 29 – December 1) and of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), also in 2014, from December 3-7. Both events will be organised in Doha (QAT).

- Approval of date for the 2nd FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships, in Eilat (ISR): August 28-30, 2014

- Approval of date for the FINA World Junior Synchro Championships, in Tampere (FIN): October 22-26, 2014.